Everything old is new again\u2014or, maybe, made new again.<\/p>\n
In recent brand campaigns from brands including Columbia Sportswear, Gushers, Pringles, Tootsie Roll, and Acuvue, marketers have dug back into the brand archives, sometimes even tapping into existing fandoms around past campaigns, to both reimagine the work for today\u2019s audiences and lean on nostalgia to try to connect with past fans.<\/p>\n
Take the snack brand Gushers, which expanded upon its surreal \u201990s ad \u201cFruitheads,\u201d with a short horror film for Halloween this year. The ad, a faux origin story directed by Mike Diva and starring The West Wing <\/em>and Get Out<\/em>\u2019s Bradley Whitford, was designed in part because of the fandom and conversation that already existed around the original commercial, Stephanie Lensing, brand experience manager for Gushers at General Mills, said.<\/p>\n \u201cFor a long time, we\u2019ve watched the Gushers \u2018Fruitheads\u2019 commercial live this wild, second life online as one of the strangest commercials of the \u201990s,\u201d Lensing told Marketing Brew in an email. \u201cThe original had this dreamlike, almost unsettling quality that was so ahead of its time. Our goal was to capture that same energy through modern storytelling and bold visuals that live naturally online.\u201d<\/p>\n Given how difficult it can be for ad campaigns to break through, ad agency execs say it\u2019s no surprise that brands are taking an interest in reviving their marketers\u2019 work of yesteryear. If something appealed to brand audiences previously, especially if there\u2019s a fandom or nostalgia for the time during which that work was produced, it can be a quick way for marketers to move the needle.<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s really hard for brands to stand out today, and it\u2019s really hard for brands to build resonance,\u201d Daryl Giannantonio, chief strategy officer for VML in New York, told Marketing Brew. \u201cIf brands have something that has been true to their ethos and people still recall it today, why wouldn\u2019t you lean into it?\u201d<\/p>\n Earlier this year, Columbia Sportswear took inspiration from its past work for a campaign called \u201cEngineered for Whatever,\u201d Columbia Sportswear\u2019s SVP and head of marketing, Matt Sutton, told Marketing Brew at the time. As part of the campaign, Columbia rolled out zany spots inspired by commercials featuring Gert and Tim Boyle, the mother and son who founded the company, in which they tested products in extreme situations, like walking through a carwash.<\/p>\n Late last month, Pringles revived its \u201990s tagline, \u201cOnce You Pop,\u201d with a slight addition: \u201cOnce You Pop, The Pop Don\u2019t Stop.\u201d While the Pringles team and its agency, FCB New York, were researching potential campaign ideas, the original tagline came up again and again, according to Mauricio Jenkins, US head of marketing for Pringles.<\/p>\n Marketing Brew informs marketing pros of the latest on brand strategy, social media, and ad tech via our weekday newsletter, virtual events, marketing conferences, and digital guides.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n \u201cThere\u2019s an inherent power to that idea, to the way we express it, and also the way we were able to modernize it,\u201d Jenkins told Marketing Brew.<\/p>\n For many marketers, there is a line to carefully walk between making a past campaign work with today\u2019s audiences while not making a brand feel dated.<\/p>\n \u201cEvery good strategist will go back into a brand\u2019s history and archive to see what you can reprise, to see where the brand was built, to see if they have a really strong legacy story that can be repurposed, to see where the epicenter of the brand is,\u201d Wanda Pogue, global chief strategy officer at VaynerMedia, said. \u201cThe trick is really making it relevant for today\u2019s audience.\u201d<\/p>\n It\u2019s a trick that can be especially resonant as many CMOs face increasingly short tenures, which can make it difficult to create distinct brand assets that have continuity in the market.<\/p>\n \u201cYou\u2019ve seen a lot of disjointed efforts,\u201d Dan Lucey, chief creative officer and co-CEO of Havas New York, said. \u201cWhen marketers are looking for ways to ensure ROI in ever more tight business markets, I think that leaning back on past campaigns that worked and that resonated with audiences, in one way, it\u2019s kind of a safe bet.\u201d<\/p>\n How best can marketers tap into the past? For some brands, there are options to pick an unexpected route, like in the case of Gushers\u2019s short film, or modernizing it, like in the case of Pringles\u2019s updated tagline. Or it could come down to recognizing where audiences who might appreciate a blast from the past could be spending their time.<\/p>\n The disposable contact lens brand Acuvue opted not to remake an ad but rather partner with creator Kate Steinberg, who often references and makes skits about the early aughts, to revisit an ad from the mid-aughts starring twins Kelly and Sabrina, one with astigmatism. In Steinberg\u2019s new skit from late last month, the twins appear next to Steinberg, where they offer her some new contacts before leaving to help another millennial.<\/p>\n For brands considering looking back, doing so should feel like a natural fit, experts advise. \u201cWhat comes up in culture? What are people resonating with, and what do people still remember about the brand that has been our center of gravity?\u201d Giannantonio said.<\/p>\n \u201cIt shouldn\u2019t feel forced,\u201d she added. \u201cIf people don\u2019t recall it, or it doesn\u2019t have any role in culture today, then it doesn\u2019t mean anything. But I think [when] you see there\u2019s cultural conversations happening around these things, and therefore it gives the brand the opportunity to bring back those and lean into them.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\nTo the archives<\/strong><\/h2>\n
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